One of the things I love about summer is how calm our schedule gets. We normally have somewhere to be 4 times a week and that doesnt include some of the random, spontaneous activities or birthday parties to go to – it can get especially hectic and tiring! I love our activities but it’s nice to have some down time and summer definitely delivers on that. The down side? We can get a little bored during the hottest part of the day when it’s safer for us to spend a few hours inside. I am a firm believer in your kids making their own fun, but it’s nice to come up with some organized activities to spur their creativity. Here are a few things we’ve been doing:
We filled ziploc bags with finger paint and put them over a white piece of paper for mess free finger painting. I saw this idea in my facebook feed and thought it was just genius! We had a good time with over the course of several days with this one.
Another day I made tracks on our carpet with tape. I thought they would think this was dumb, but they actually loved it.
I even grabbed a piece of scrap wood from my husbands pile in the garage to use as an off-ramp.
Then today we played ball toss, old school bozo the clown style. Did you watch that show? I just grabbed some bowls out of the cabinet and some of the smaller balls out of the boys ball bucket and had them take turns. This activity taught them more than I thought. For one, we have to be patient and wait our turn even when we’re itching to get in and toss the ball or tell the other person just how they should do it. Next, they learned the art of tossing the ball softly or they’d bounce out. Last, we grabbed some mini beanie babies and they saw how much easier it was to make it with those than it was with the smaller balls.
An activity we loved back when it snowed was this one with ice cubes in a bowl of water with a slotted spoon, transferring to an empty bowl. They loved that one and I loved the focus on hand eye coordination.
What fun activities have you done around the house lately?
